Horrigan is at it again!

Durham Democrat and State Rep. Tim Horrigan is a knucklehead. That's not our term for Horrigan. It comes from a commentary written by former State Democratic Party Chair Kathy Sullivan in which she says Horrigan should consider resigning (again).

Readers will remember that in 2010, as Sullivan recaps, Horrigan “participated in a Facebook discussion about the impact Sarah Palin's death might have. After the controversy went national, he resigned, but then unsuccessfully tried to withdraw the resignation. Despite the incident, the voters of Durham reelected him, and then reelected him again in 2012.”

We have no way of knowing if Horrigan saw his re-elections as cleansing him of all sins, but last week he was back at it.

Again from Sullivan: “The Palin comment controversy should have ended public pronouncements by Horrigan about the deaths of prominent figures, but whoops — he did it again. Last week, Horrigan forwarded a tweet from someone else that apparently was supposed to be a joke about Dick Cheney shooting Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He quickly realized it was a mistake, and deleted it. However, he should not have retweeted it in the first place. Joking about someone getting shot is bad enough, but when it is a state representative joking about a member of our highest court getting shot, it is just inexplicable and inexcusable.”

With that Sullivan concluded: “Horrigan now has deprived his constituents of effective representation, as the controversy will be a distraction from his duties as a representative. Despite his subsequent and sincere apology, he has embarrassed the General Court, which has suffered way too many embarrassing moments from inappropriate conduct and statements over the last couple of years.

Additionally, but of much lesser importance, he has handed the Republicans a club with which to hit the Democratic House majority. Rep. Horrigan has said he will not resign again, but if I were him, I would consider it — and also give up my Twitter account.”

Since Horrigan figuratively put his foot in his mouth again with the retweet we have wrestled with what to write. By most accounts, Horrigan is a nice guy. One would think no malice intended. But as Sullivan indicates, sometimes stupidity reigns supreme.

We had hoped that in addition to the short apology he offered for his most recent transgression, Horrigan would provide us with a community commentary, explaining to our readers and his constituents just what goes on in that cranium of his. To date we have not received one after trading emails with the Durham state representative earlier this week.

As a result we have chosen to let Sullivan speak on our behalf for the time being. And should Horrigan continue his silence, we would suggest that Durham voters not even give him the courtesy of thinking twice before electing someone else to that seat in the next election. Hopefully, Horrigan will take Sullivan's advice to heart so as not to offer voters that option next time around.

As for the Republicans using Horrigan as a political “club with which to hit the Democratic House majority,” you can bet on it. And so will we. As noted on our past editorials, we cut the Bill O'Brien crew no slack during the last session of the Legislature, nor will we overlook the Three Stooges-like antics of Speaker Terie Norelli's Democratic knuckleheads.